It is well known that, because of the high concentration of nitrate ions, ammonium nitrate (including double salts comprising ammonium nitrate) has important uses in the field of agriculture in general and fertilization in particular. However, it is also well known that ammonium nitrate, in many of the forms in which it has heretofore been commonly used, is relatively difficult and potentially hazardous to handle commercially in large amounts, and/or to store in great masses (such as occur in commercial warehouses and storage bins), especially for relatively long periods of time. Furthermore, it has been known that many of the forms of ammonium nitrate heretofore commonly used have had a tendency to detonate under relatively mild conditions and have, therefore, sometimes been abused and misused as an explosive material.
Several potential solutions to the problem of the explosiveness and/or the detonability of compositions containing ammonium nitrate have been proposed. For example, the use of ammonium nitrate in the form of a double salt with ammonium sulfate for the purpose of reducing the hazardous properties of the ammonium nitrate has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,181, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference. However, the processes used to formulate such double salt-based products are relatively complex. It could therefore be helpful to provide ammonium nitrate composites that are comparatively safe to handle and less complex methods of making such composites.